1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a service providing system, a service providing apparatus, and a service providing method, which provide a service for the user in response to the user's operation, as well as a program for implementing the method.
2. Description of the Related Art
At a convenience store or the like, equipment such as a copying machine or a facsimile machine is installed to provide services for unspecified users. A digital copying machine having not only a copying function but also a facsimile function, an electronic mail function, a function of accumulating images in the machine is also possibly installed at a convenience store or the like. When transmitting documents read by a scanner by such equipment, proper settings as to the reading resolution, the reading mode, and so forth are made and settings as to information to be added to the documents being transmitted are made in accordance with the type of the documents. Further, it is necessary to input the telephone number, the electronic mail address, etc. of a destination.
To simplify such operations carried out in transmission, the above-mentioned equipment is provided with an address book function, a one-touch button control function, a patterned service function of storing transmission settings, a calling function of calling transmission settings from latest ones to ones made a predetermined number of times before the latest setting.
Further, the equipment may be provided with a Box function of temporarily storing documents in the equipment and then carrying out copying, transmission, printing, and so forth.
Every time the user uses the equipment, he or she has to pay a usage fee according to the number of copies made and the communication time.
At an ordinary office or the like where the equipment is used for business and the users may be specified, transmission settings such as facsimile numbers and electronic mail addresses of destinations, which have been registered by the address book function or the patterned service function provided in the equipment, and transmission settings made in the past and called by the calling function may be referred to by users other than the user who made the settings, without any problem.
However, transmission settings such as facsimile numbers and electronic mail addresses of destinations made in the equipment at a convenience store or the like, which are used by unspecified users, can be referred to by persons other than the user who made the transmission settings. This is not preferred in terms of personal information protection. For this reason, every time the user transmits documents via facsimile, he or she has to make settings as to reading and settings as to destinations, and this is very troublesome.
Likewise, it is not preferred that documents stored in the Box are referred to by other users, in terms of personal information protection. However, it is impossible to manage passwords of unspecified users and to apply the Box function using the passwords, and thus, the Box function cannot be provided for the user.
Further, every time the user uses the equipment, he or she has to pay a usage fee charged for the use of the equipment to a store where the equipment is placed. Since this is inconvenient for the user, he or she may not be motivated to come to the store again.